NEW! Add-On Any Number of Übertübs To Your Pledge*

Click on the blue "Manage" button and simply add the cost of the Übertüb that you'd like (Small $79, Medium $99, Large $159 CAD). *Applies to pledges of $79 or more.

They're Back…and They're Better!

Rubber Inner tubes. As kids, we loved them. We spent hours playing with them. But where are they now? They’ve all but disappeared, and no one has looked to improve upon them. Today’s cheap, plastic inflatables have replaced the classic rubber tube, but with limited success. Vinyl/PVC plastic tubes lack durability, are hard to inflate, and seldom last more than a few hours before they burst. Most are very toxic, are a huge waste of money, and continue to pile up in our landfills.

Check out the recessed valve and our awesome package design

And so, we bring you the Übertüb (pronounced Ubertube). It’s the classic rubber inner tube - reinvented, re-engineered, and re-designed for you and your family. Our patent-pending, recessed valve system makes rapid inflationanddeflation a snap. Take it anywhere and pack it up with ease in the quick-dry mesh storage sack! It’s extremely durable, so you’ll never have to worry about it bursting or the seams coming apart.

And for the first time ever, you can have a rubber Übertüb in color! We’ve worked with leading engineers to develop a durable colored rubber. This brings a whole new level of awesomeness and fun to the Übertüb!

Re-discover this simple, awesome, and timeless toy with your friends and family!

PLEDGE REWARDS

Just look at all the awesome loot we'll send your way. Images not to scale.

Here are just a few of the product features you’ll love about the Übertüb:

EASY TO INFLATE / DEFLATE

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We’ve designed a valve system that allows you to use just about whatever you have on hand to inflate your tube. A gas station air pump, your portable air compressor, a foot/hand pump, or even our easy-to-use manual inflation tool will quickly do the trick. A check valve keeps all the air inside your Übertüb while you screw on the convenient cap that locks all the parts in place.

You will never again have to struggle to deflate your tube. Just unscrew the valve assembly and all the air rushes out, allowing you to quickly roll up your Übertüb, or fold it flat. A 42” tube deflates in mere seconds so you’ll be off and ready to go. Your old inner tube sure didn’t do that!

CONVENIENT STORAGE

Roll up your Übertüb in a snap and tuck it neatly inside the included mesh storage sack.

With no trapped air inside, your Übertüb easily slides into the included quick-dry mesh bag and it’s ready for next time. Its small packed size makes it a breeze to toss into a suitcase, load in a trunk, or stow it wherever you want. Storing and transporting your Übertüb just became a whole lot more convenient and requires less space.

DURABLE

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Constructed using industrial-strength butyl rubber, your Übertüb is ready for just about any punishment that you or your kids can dish out. We’ve tried all kinds of ways to destroy it (check out our YouTube Channel) and the Übertüb just keeps coming back for more abuse. Every part of the product is designed and crafted with quality in mind. These are built to last–just like the old days.

CONVENIENT VALVE DESIGN

Use a wide variety of inflation tools you already have on hand.

At long last – a tube with a valve that doesn’t jab you while you’re swimming or sliding down a snow-covered hill. The entire valve assembly is flush and contoured with the inside surface of the Übertüb. And it looks really slick to boot. What’s not to love?

NON-TOXIC

All materials used in the manufacture of the Übertüb are evaluated for safety.

Government regulations for phthalates, and other nasty chemicals often found in many PVC toys/inflatables, are being banned around the world, especially in the toy industry. The rubber used to build the Übertüb is completely inert, and won’t leach anything into the environment or cause any health issues. Designing for both people and the environment is a key part of our philosophy.

COLOR

We'll be producing the Übertüb in a variety of great UV-stable colors.

The old carbon-black tubes were pretty darn good, but they looked a bit drab. Not anymore! The Übertüb is available in several colors of rubber in addition to the classic black model. We’ve worked with leading rubber compounding companies to produce a UV-stable, durable, and safe recreation-specific colored material. Now you can have it both ways–realrubber and your favorite color, too.

MULTI-SEASON FUN

Use your Übertüb year-round. It‘s not just for summer.

Why pack away your Übertüb when it gets cold outside? Many of us remember hurtling ourselves down the snow-covered hills, bouncing harmlessly off jumps and bumps. Get your kids (young and old) outside in the winter and enjoy some healthy outdoor play.

PERSONALIZE OR REPAIR

A variety of different rubber repair patches will be available to fix or personalize your Übertüb.

Make your Übertüb your very own. With a variety of instant-stick rubber patches in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes, your tube will be one-of-a-kind. And while we have every confidence in our product’s durability, if you do somehow manage to spring a leak, simply fix it. Why throw away what can easily be made new again?

MADE IN THE USA

Tired of all your stuff coming from somewhere far, far, away? Made right here.

Supporting American innovation, design, and manufacturing is a key business objective. We want to help domestic companies provide good quality jobs and opportunities for people. Built in USA means quality you can depend on and Übertüb is committed to, wherever possible, engaging onshore suppliers for all product and packaging components.

RECYCLABLE

Designing for the environment is a key Übertüb company value. Every step of the manufacturing process has been designed to have a minimal impact on the environment. We even offer a replacement warranty…so if you ever find a way to destroy your Übertüb, we’ll take it back, and reprocess the rubber to produce new products. We are always thinking of ways to leave things a little better than we found them. And that means re-thinking how we build our product so that we remove waste from the equation.

Risks and challenges

We have worked very hard to line up quality manufacturers and suppliers to build the Übertüb. But bringing even the simplest of products to market is not without its challenges. We’ve gone to great lengths to anticipate any potential hiccups with the design and development of the Übertüb, and we are committed to resolving every challenge that comes our way.

ENGINEERING

The key to our product is the development of a valve system that works with the most commonly available inflation methods and tools, such as air compressors, gas station air pumps, 12 volt tire inflator pump, hand or foot air mattress pumps and more. However, with the purchase of your Übertüb, we will include a manual inflation tool that is form-fitted for easy and efficient inflation by mouth. As such, there is no need to have a pump or compressor to inflate an Übertüb quickly.

In designing and patenting a custom recessed valve system, we have also considered compatibility with existing manufacturing processes. Our valve is comprised of four components: a cup, a Boston valve adapter, a Schrader adapter, and a cap that encapsulates the entire assembly. A rubber gasket at the base of the cup meets with the cap to ensure an airtight seal. The Schrader adaptor is not an actual valve, as our research has indicated that dirt or sand can cause a Schrader valve to malfunction or jam. The Schrader adapter slides into the Boston valve beneath it with a simple friction fit. The Boston valve component is the primary check valve enabling convenient and rapid inflation with no loss of air. When removed, a ⅞” hole in the base of the recessed valve cup permits extremely rapid deflation.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

The entire valve stack assembly is protected under a provisional utility patent application, which is accompanied by a provisional industrial design patent to protect unique and distinctive aesthetic product features. Protecting all intellectual property developed during the design and development of the Übertüb is an important step in bringing this product to market.

MANUFACTURING

Our company has already engaged a leading US-based rubber inner tube manufacturer to adapt current production equipment and procedures to accommodate our new valve and our aesthetic requirements. Utilizing existing equipment will enable us to bring the Übertüb to market more quickly and at a much lower cost. We will be leveraging the expertise of people who have many decades of experience building quality rubber inner tubes for a variety of applications.

We have also negotiated secondary arrangements with overseas manufacturing facilities. Though our preference is to build the product in the USA, having access to other manufacturing partners if needed will provide us with additional flexibility and scalability should product demand require it.

DISTRIBUTION

Though managing a supply chain can sometimes present challenges, we are actively building a team of quality suppliers (and back-up suppliers) who are committed to delivering quality products on time, and at a fair price. We will look to work with the manufacturer’s existing logistics capabilities for skid distribution to North American fulfillment warehouses.

We have engaged a reputable fulfillment provider to deliver product and swag to our pledge supporters. They are a very capable part of our team, prepared to support both small and large-scale fulfillment. We believe in surrounding ourselves with experienced, industry-specific professionals who will help assist us in bringing the Übertüb to market quickly and efficiently.

COST OF GOODS

Our goal is to build a great product right here in North America while maintaining a fair retail price. That’s no small feat, as it’s often cheaper to source or manufacture products overseas. Übertüb is committed to supporting businesses here at home. Although we remain committed to this objective, we have connected with overseas producers in case domestic production becomes cost-prohibitive. We are committed to bringing the Übertüb to market.

RUBBER COMPOUNDING

We have several compounding companies ready to conduct research and development on a custom rubber compound that can be colored. And although we have a number of colors planned for the Übertüb, as we finalize our rubber compounding, the pigmentation and vulcanization process may produce a somewhat different palette than we anticipate. We will continue to work closely with our compounding suppliers throughout the development of the product to ensure we build a durable material in a series of attractive colors, that is safe for consumers and easy on the environment.

BRANDING

As vital to the product as the unique valve system and the special colored rubber, is the Übertüb brand itself. We’ve done a great deal of legwork to ensure that this is a brand that people will love and seek out. Our wordmark and logo have been professionally hand-lettered. Our branding system has been laid out by a graphic designer/typographer with a prescriptive style guide.

Our name has also been protected with our own top-level domain (ubertub.com), matching vanity URLs on all social channels, and a customer service number (844-UBERTUB). We’ve even gone as far as to file a US Trademark application for the wordmark and graphical equivalents. We are aware of the importance of brand recognition in the marketplace.

PACKAGE DESIGN

We’ve collaborated with an award-winning corrugate packaging firm. They have helped us design a unique box in which to ship and retail the product. The design maximizes pallet space to achieve optimum shipping efficiencies. Printing colors have been reduced to address costs and an innovative PET plastic lid has been designed so that the product color can be easily seen on the shelf. We plan to use Post-Consumer Waste (PCW) paper and vegetable-based inks for printing. Arrangements are in place to ship all materials to the manufacturer for packaging and shipment. The packaging has been designed with the environment in mind, as it is easy to disassemble and recycle each of the component parts.

REGULATORY

The Übertüb is designed specifically for recreation, so special attention will be paid to government product safety requirements. Our rubber compounding partners will assist us with the development of a material that is inert - with no ill health effects to either people or the environment. And our legal team will help us to be sure that we’ve adhered to any and all applicable safety laws wherever the product is sold. Who knew there’d be so much fine print involved with re-inventing the inner tube?

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Part of our product will involve the creation of a charitable foundation focused on helping to get kids and their families outside and active. The Übertüb idea stems largely from our belief that people spend too much time in front of their computers, tablets, or phones. By encouraging good clean fun with a quality toy that stimulates the imagination, we believe that we can improve the quality of people's lives and help to make them happier and healthier.

PRODUCT COMMUNITY

In order to help further encourage people to go outside and have fun with our products, we plan to create a community of Übertübrs. These will be product evangelists who willingly share photos, videos, locations, and experiences with other tubing enthusiasts. The idea is to help raise awareness of both our products and how simple toys like the Übertüb can help people stay active and healthy.

OUR COMMITMENT

To sum up, we’ve already made tremendous progress toward bringing this great product to market. We’ve absorbed the costs that we’ve needed to in order to get this far, but to truly put the gears into motion, we need the support of the Kickstarter community. There remains a large amount of legal work, research, product development, injection mold production, marketing, web development, patent work, accounting, and other related tasks that will all incur significant costs. Thank you for your support and know that we are fully committed to making this fantastic product a reality!

FINE PRINT

* Übertüb swag, colors and sizes are subject to change at creators' discretion
** Both individual and co-creator experience rewards are subject to location, scheduling, cancellation, and possible modification. Übertüb Inc. retains the right to adjust rewards based on fulfilment cost calculations completed prior to campaign.